In turn, the gentlemen addressed: the large boite/new oak program; biodynamic viticulture; the perfection of a peekytoe crab pairing; the gripping acids; and the perfect spot this takes on a wine list for a customer looking for either value, or something from a less beaten path.

Along one wall, a marketing executive with feathered Madonna hair sat one night with friends and used her phone to photograph her food, a peekytoe gratin off the specials list: soft, fat cubes of bread tendrilled with crab, moist and steaming, a Thanksgiving dream-dressing made real as February.